Leave the Leaves!

Steal Our Hack! Save Wildlife, Health, Money and Time

 

November 2023. By Oscar Ortega: Throughout the year, we hold gratitude for marvelous, magical, hardworking mulch. This same gratitude flows to leaves as they fall.

Even after they’ve left their branches, leaves help us save birds, butterflies, pollinators and wildlife. Many will find winter homes and nutrients in leaf litter. For some, dry leaves are preferred nesting material. Fallen leaf shelter provides so much support to wildlife, it carries the same value as native plant foliage on the application to become a Certified Wildlife Habitat!    

Leaves also help us save your health, money and time. Like mulch brought-in to give your garden a finished look, fallen leaves will decompose to provide a natural, toxin-free fertilizer. They will inhibit the growth of weeds, inhibiting gardener interest in pesticides toxic to monarchs and often humans and wildlife too. Best of all, they exist on site and can easily be moved to areas where they provide the most value to foliage.

For those in high fire severity zones, leaves and mulch should be removed from Zone 0. Outside of Zone 0, they can be composted or covered with compost mulch, which studies have shown to produce the lowest ignition danger. Compost mulch provides much of the clean and complete aesthetic of traditional mulches. For those in fire safe areas, leaf litter can also be covered with a fine layer of traditional, organic mulch for a finished aesthetic.

For those of you maintaining your own space, steal our hacks! Make leaf litter useful by mulching it into lawns and meadows. Move it into garden beds, leaving a little space at the base of plants to avoid creating mold-friendly environments. Add any extra to your compost. Consider watching for nests and pollinator activity here as you might in your milkweed or trees… you may find the more you watch, wait and wonder, the more wildlife will wonder at you!    

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